Whitby Town Hold Promotion Chasers

Sunday, 15 December 2024 06:00

By Andrew Snaith

Whitby held fourth-placed Ilkeston as they rose to 10th and ended their inconsistent run of Win-Loss-Win-Loss-Win-Loss.

With injuries and illness biting, manager Gary Liddle made a rare on-field appearance to marshall the Blues backline. However, the first half saw most of the action at the other end.

Man of the match midfielder Layton Watts, pushed into a rare striker role, back-heeled wide on 13 minutes, then chipped onto the roof of the net, over the onrushing Matt Yates.

Towering frontman Connor Simpson then cracked the Ilkeston crossbar, out of nowhere, from 20 yards, ten minutes before half-time. Three minutes later, Simpson's stooping near post header was hooked off the Robins' goal-line.

Nine minutes into the second half, Whitby should have led as bright move down the right saw wing-back Louis Stephenson release Nathan Thomas who crossed for Aaron Haswell to fire over, unmarked, at the back post.

As expected, Ilkeston did stutter into life after the hour. Substitute Linden Miekle turned brilliantly and powered goalwards from 20 yards forcing Shane Bland to claw to his right at full stretch. Bland then pulled off a superb point-blank parry to deny the league's second-highest scorer Tom Cursons, from the follow-up.

15-goal Cursons then turned inches wide, 19 minutes from time. At the other end, Simpson's goalbound near-post effort was charged down point-blank.

As the game opened up, Cursons fired straight at Bland, three minutes from time. Haswell then raced forward after cutting in from the left, but could only shoot tamely at Yates, who hung on well, two minutes into injury time.

Matty Tymon returned for a third spell at the Towbar Express stadium, after coming off the bench, to replace Simpson in the second half:

Whitby Town TV also caught up with Blues assistant boss Jason Kennedy at full-time:

Whitby are next in action on Boxing Day, at Blyth Spartans, we have full commentary on This Is The Coast Extra.

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